LETTER: A27: Reinstate the options Chris

Published:15:45Friday 16 September 2016

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By their own admission, four of the five ‘options’ guarantee us, the residents, will be ‘blessed’ with increased nitrogen dioxide levels. How lucky can we get? What will be the long-term expense to the NHS?

The letter from Anne Winter, in the Observer (1st September), prompts a reminder that:

The agency, albeit under one of its earlier guises, had the ability to cause serious flooding of the Bosham/Broadbridge area, on more than one occasion – following the construction of an improvement, locally known as ‘the New Chichester to Emsworth A27’. The fact they also got the carriageway surface wrong is neither here nor there. How easy it is to spend public money and then insist it was good value!

The same agency also caused major long-term surface water issues in the Westhampnett area, following construction of yet another improvement – yes, you’ve guessed it – another new section of the A27.

In more recent times, vast sums of public money have been spent, by the agency, ‘improving’ drainage on the Whyke/Bognor bridge/Westhampnett sections of the A27. Only a few days ago, after one of the longest dry spells for a number of years, large areas of standing water were immediately evident, following the briefest of showers. Perhaps the new mineral extraction site at Kingsham, off the Whyke/Hunston roundabout, has been permitted in order to provide additional capacity for anticipated highways surface water run-off?

The Chichester bypass has long been a laughing stock – known as ‘Little Venice’, by South Coast travellers. ‘One lane closed’ being the most common expression used by traffic report broadcasters, following any rain. But then, it was never constructed as a bypass in the first place – merely a number of local roads, cobbled together, in an endeavour to provide a solution. It has been failing for donkey’s years – it is not a recent phenomena.

I attended an early presentation at Fishbourne and managed to find one Highways England representative, who had some ‘local knowledge’ – in his case, with Felpham. Only to later discover he thought Felpham was somewhere north of Boxgrove. Lord help us!

Come on Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Transport, you were brave enough to support Brexit – now is the time for further bravery and reinstate Options 4 and 5.